Senior politicians embroiled in the MPs expenses scandal are being targeted by
a group of independent candidates at the next general election.

The 24 men and women are raising money to challenge some of the biggest names caught up in the scandal who were accused of abuses of the Commons allowances.

They include Alistair Darling, the Chancellor, Hazel Blears, the former Communities Secretary, Jacqui Smith, the former Home Secretary, and Alan Duncan who was sacked from the shadow cabinet by David Cameron.

Martin Bell, the first Independent MP in Britain for 50 years, has revealed he is actively coaching the unnamed 24 on how to run and finance election campaigns.

Their intervention could have a decisive impact on the outcome of the next election as the Liberal Democrats may stand down candidates where they are trailing in third place.

Terry Waite, a former envoy to the Archbishop of Canterbury who was held hostage in the Middle East, is also advising the group. Mr Waite has yet to decide whether to stand in his home town of Bury St Edmunds against the Tory frontbencher David Ruffley.

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Mr Bell told The Daily Telegraph: “A serious political machine is being put in place and I am confident we will win seats at the next election.”

The disclosure that potential rivals to the mainstream parties have become so well organised will cause deep unease to the Labour and Tory leadership.

Gordon Brown, whose own personal authority has been damaged by the expenses revelations, will be particularly alarmed by the threat to Mr Darling who is defending a 7,000 majority in Edinburgh. The Chancellor is in the firing line because he flipped his designated second home after moving into a grace and favour property.

Other big names at risk are Miss Blears who flipped her second home three times in a single year enabling her to legally avoid capital gains tax.

The Prime Minister branded her conduct “totally unacceptable” and she volunteered to pay the £13,000 that would have been payable in capital gains tax.

A candidate has also come forward in the Dewsbury constituency of Shahid Malik who stepped down as Justice minister over claims that he rented his constituency home from a “slum” landlord at discounted rates.

He was later cleared of breaking ministerial rules and was brought back into the government.

Geoff Hoon, who stood down as Transport Secretary in the last Cabinet reshuffle, is also at risk after he claimed expenses for two different second homes over the same period. He blamed an “administrative error”.

Keith Vaz, the former minister, who claimed more than £75,500 in expenses for a London flat despite owning a £1.15m home just 12 miles from parliament, is facing a similar threat. He also flipped a designated second home twice in a year.

A rebel movement has been launched in the Rutland constituency of Alan Duncan who was sacked from the shadow cabinet by David Cameron after complaining MPs were made to live on rations.

Mr Bell, in his trademark white suit, swept into Parliament in one of the Tories safest seats in the 1997 general election when he beat Neil Hamilton who had resigned as a minister because of the cash for questions allegations.

Both Labour and the Liberal Democrats stood aside to make way for Mr Bell who told The Daily Telegraph: “I have high hopes that, where it is appropriate, the Liberal Democrats will be open to persuasion to do the same again.”

Mr Bell, a former BBC war correspondent, has addressed a meeting in the Salford constituency of Miss Blears which he said was “all fired up”. He is in talks with a candidate, backed by 50 volunteers, in Mr Malik’s Dewsbury constituency.

He has held several seminars on campaigning across the country.

Mr Waite is coming under strong pressure to let his name go forward against Mr Ruffley in Bury St Edmunds. Mr Ruffley, the shadow policing minister, spent thousands of pounds at Harrods furnishing his constituency property after “flipping” his second home designation from his London flat.

Mr Bell has also been talking to Esther Rantzen, the television presenter, who is standing in Luton South where the Labour MP Margaret Moran claimed £22,000 for dry rot work on her partner’s house in Southampton.

“There are 200 MPs who are unfit. Only one has resigned," Mr Bell said. "The phrase they keep using is ‘a few rotten apples’, but even of the candidates to be Speaker, eight out of 10 had been touched in some way by the scandal.”